Bleasdale Frank Potts Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec Merlot Petit Verdot 2019

If you have a soft spot for a good cabernet blend, this will scratch it. A seamless entity, each grape plays its part beautifully. A lively cacophony of toasted spices and violets introduces the wine on the bouquet with an arresting spark of mint. They join with dark berries, dark chocolate and cigar box scents. There is complexity here, ie. there’s a lot happening, but it’s controlled
and focused. You taste it on the palate with beautifully ripened fruit and spice-herb-earth-cacao accompaniments, all handsomely dressed in well-judged French oak. Fine, supple tannins gently grip the palate. And while it is great drinking now, the Frank Potts is well suited for time in the cellar, but only if you fancy it.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic